A savvy couple has revealed how they managed to slash their weekly food bill to just £30 without missing out on any meals or snacks.
Craig Harker, 36, and partner Rochelle Fairley, 29, prepared all their meals from scratch as they took on a challenge to make it through the week on a highly reduced food budget.
The couple took to their local Asda and Aldi stores and spent a total of £30.80 in both supermarkets, roughly what they would spend on an average takeaway order.
Food blogger Craig, who completes eating challenges for the entertainment of his online fans, thinks he saved around £400 on his weekly food costs.
And the couple even lost a stone between them in weight during the seven days, which saw them eat 21 meals at an average cost of just over £1 per meal.
Craig, of Stockton-on-Tees, said: "It felt good, I think it brought us together because we were cooking together every day. I've probably saved more than £400 because I wasn't buying fast food every day.
"We bought everything from Aldi or the essentials range. I'll never buy Heinz Ketchup again, Asda's essentials version is actually nicer."
They packed their cupboards full of Asda's Essentials range and raided Aldi's shelves and tried to find the best bargains they could.
The couple stocked up on meat, rice and vegetables and made their budget stretch by buying tins of soups, rice pudding and peach slices.
Craig then prepared delicious recipes for his family to enjoy, including spaghetti bolognese, Chinese sticky pork and chicken curry.
He shared their journey online to help people struggling to budget and to inspire creative ways to slash their food bills during the cost of living crisis. They even had food left over at the end of the week.
He added: "As a food blogger, I eat fast food every day, or I'll eat at a restaurant or a takeaway. With the cost of living crisis and the way everything is going, I thought up this challenge of using the cost of a takeaways for days.
"It wasn't to show that it can be done - because everybody can budget if they try - but I wanted to show how you can still have good quality meals within that budget.
"We were still having big, hearty portions, we still had big meals. It's been a good week, we've been able to do it, but people shouldn't have to live like that.
"Hopefully we can help give people some tips and they can use them to help budget and make the most of their food."
Dad-of-three Craig, who runs food blog Dad Loves Food alongside owning The George Pub and Grill in his hometown, lost 9lb over the course of the week. His partner, Rochelle, lost 5lbs.
An average day of eating for Craig normally would consist of a full English breakfast, a packet of biscuits with a brew, a burger for lunch and dinner from a fast food chain, like McDonalds or KFC.
But after he spent the week committed to his shoestring budget, he has developed a new found love of porridge - and he even dreamt up creative snacks while not wasting any of his food.
He added: "We cut out chocolate, crisps and fizzy drinks. For the first couple of days we felt hungry and fancied a snack.
"So we cut the crust of a slice of bread, spread jam over and rolled it up and put it in the frying pan and we had mini swiss rolls."
Craig's meals
Breakfasts: Porridge most days, with sausage and scrambled eggs a couple of times
Lunches: Soup, jacket potatoes, chicken wrap
Dinners: Chinese sticky pork, spag bol, sausage casserole
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